“I want you to gain three things from these teachings:

Number one, I want you to gain an appreciation that there is more in the Scripture than you have seen before, and that there are rich treasures to be found once we learn when and where and how to dig.

Number two, I want you to become familiar with resources that you can turn to, places you can go for information, for background studies, to find what you need when you need it.

None of us carry all of the information in ourselves and no one source has all the answers. So, number one is an appreciation that there is more in the text than we have seen. Number two is knowing where to look to begin to open up those doors.

Number three, this is the most important one of all, to let the text impact us so suddenly we say: “You mean this is what God expects of me, and this is what I need to do?” In other words, if this teaching does not somehow show us how God wants us to respond to Him, then we haven’t really grown. If all we have gained is information and knowledge, I have failed to reach my goal for you and this teaching. I want ultimately for these teachings to result in you being either a better student of the Bible, or more deeply in love with Jesus than ever before, or a better witness of your faith than ever before.

John F. Phelps